Humiliated and Insulted Alma Books

A new translation of a lesser-known work catches the verve and tumult of the original, which, in concept and execution, affords a refreshingly unfamiliar glimpse of the author. Oscar Wilde claimed that Humiliated and Insulted is "not at all inferior to the other great masterpieces, " and Friedrich Nietzsche is said to have wept over it. Its construction is that of an intricate detective novel, and the reader is plunged into a world of moral degradation, childhood trauma, and, above all, unrequited love and irreconcilable relationships. Found at the center of the story are a young struggling author, an orphaned teenager, and a depraved aristocrat who not only foreshadows the great figures of evil in Dostoevsky's later fiction, but is a powerful and original presence in his own right. Includes photographs, a critical apparatus on Dostoevsky's life and works, an appendix on Humiliated and Insulted, anecdotes, critical perspectives, adaptations, and spin-offs.